and then that word grew louder and louder 'til it was a battle cry
by katanafleet
Summary: Just as Craig was about to cave and panic, he heard a bright laugh across the playground. The people were in the shadows of the great tree, but he distinguished three people—one tall, one curvier, and one quite small. He sprinted over to the bench, tripped over a branch, and fell down at the feet of the Doctor and River Song. [sequel to 'you're a light in the jaded world']


"Hurry up, Daddy! Everybody's already at the park! See! There's Avery, and there's Sienna, and there's Zayn, and there's Margaret! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Zayn just took the last swing!"

Today, Craig thought, was a day where Alfie Owens, a.k.a. Stormy, would not be the greatest kid in the world.

Of course it started with the five-year-old deciding it would be a good idea to paint the walls with lime green and electric orange Sharpie (they had moved again and this was a _rental_ , too). Then he didn't eat his eggs and gave them to the cat, a cat which happened to be egg-intolerant. Finally, he had been begging and begging to go to the park when he saw the other kids going.

Sophie was busy with colicky baby Janie, so Craig had volunteered to take his son to the park to shut him up and get some energy out of him so that his daughter and wife could sleep. It had seemed a good idea at the time.

However, he had now lost his kid.

He stood in the middle of the playground and called for Alfie. No answer. Not surprising. He ran over to the other benches and asked them if they had seen a five-year-old boy with blondish-brownish hair and a hyperactive tendency. No results. He ran around the entire playground, calling the whole way. Finally he was back at the slide where he had last seen Alfie. Hands on knees and panting—no weight had been lost over the last five years, thanks to Soph and her Most Excellent Culinary Skills—he examined the slide for evidence of some dastardly deed, such as a kidnapping or a small and quiet murder. Nothing.

Just as Craig was about to cave and panic, he heard a bright laugh across the playground, over at a bench under a tree he hadn't seen before. It appeared to have some kind of box hiding behind it. The people were in the shadows of the great tree, but he distinguished three people—one tall and skinny, one shorter and curvier, and one quite small. The final straw of recognition was the blonde space hair of the second.

He sprinted over to the bench, tripped over a branch, and fell down at the feet of the Doctor and River Song. Alfie tossed himself into his father's arms with a "Geronimo!", making him collapse onto his back.

"Alfie, why did you run off? I told you never to run off! Your Mum will kill me if I lose you—" He hugged his child and the child squeaked.

"I didn't run off! The Doctor called me over!" The Doctor looked a bit ashamed at his causing Alfie to disobey his father and River mouthed _sorry_.

"That's _running off_ , Alfie Owens. Don't do it again." He sat up and glared at the Doctor, still a little out of breath. "Why are you even here?"

The Doctor dropped his guilty expression and grinned his childlike smile. "We got bored and River suggested a playground, any playground, in twenty-first century earth. Watch the kids playing. Have some fresh air with enough oxygen and no carbon trioxide. Do not go to Qeytolniria, as a future reference. It's hard for even _Time Lords_ to breathe. And lo and behold the Old Girl" he motioned to the blue box "takes us to Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All. And his most excellent father!" He stood and yanked Craig up by the shoulders, pulled Alfie out of his arms, tossed the kid to River, and kissed Craig on both cheeks.

"Stop that, sweetie. No one's done that greeting tradition in Britain in fifty years at least." She was holding Alfie close on her lap—Alfie seemed quite content—and smiling gently at the Doctor.

"Nonsense, River! It's quite regularly done! I do research on proper greetings!" River merely rolled her eyes and smiled indulgently, mouthing another apology to Craig.

"So you aren't here because of some alien invasion?" Craig got a bit worried, all of a sudden. He had noticed recently that whenever he saw tweed, a bowtie, or curly blonde hair he got a bit panicked. Surely this was not a result of these two. Of course not.

"No, just dropping through," River reassured him. "No alien invasion."

"Well, Craig, if you want an alien invasion I'm sure we can take you to one," the Doctor said generously. "No problem at all. When is it? 2015? Paraguay's currently having a small invasion of Silurians."

"No, sweetie, it's Uruguay that's currently under attack by Sea Devils, as I recall. I've never found out why they came, want to go see?" River set Alfie down, stood, and stretched her back, walking toward the sunlight. The Doctor stared after her for a moment, eyes shining, then followed with a skip in his step. Craig ran after them and Alfie sprinted to catch up to River.

He grabbed her hand and started babbling about Sea Devils and Silurians and South America. Finally, his questions were too fast and his language was incomprehensible to even Craig, who was used to and learned in the babbling of the kid. River leaned down and, looking into his eyes, shushed him. He was immediately silent. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish and Craig could see that he was considering tears.

River picked him up and set him on a swing, as tiny Zayn and Sienna had left them to hide next to their mothers and stare curiously at Alfie and his adult friends. The Doctor and Craig watched as Alfie plainly forgot about his dreadful inability to speak and started swinging with River's help, going higher and higher. River followed every back and forth motion of the swing with her eyes.

"How have you been?" the Doctor asked, turning to the human at his side.

"Fine, you?" Craig grinned. The Doctor was terrible at small talk.

"Good, good, we're fine. Been traveling mostly alone for a while now, left the Ponds back home."

"…Amy, right?"

"Amy and Rory. It was getting too dangerous for them, and I couldn't lose them. Not now. Not yet." The Doctor's eyes were fixed on River, and Craig could have sworn there was a tear in the Time Lord's eye.

"Are you okay?"

The Doctor turned to Craig and beamed. The single delicate tear was gone. "I'm the king of okay! Got my Craig" he motioned to Craig and he smiled in acknowledgement "my Alfie" he waved to Alfie, who was regaining speech capabilities, as evidenced by his shrieks of glee "and my wife. It's all—"

"Your wife? Really?" Craig grinned.

"Got hitched about a century ago for me, how long ago for you, River?" he called to the woman.

"About the same, I think. I'm losing count of the anniversaries," she called back.

"Daddy, Daddy, look! Miss River can push me really, really high!" Sure enough, Alfie was going higher into the air than Craig had thought the swing could carry the kid.

"Is it too high, Craig? I can stop, if you prefer, or if those concerned parents are friends of yours," River asked. Little Margaret's parents were indeed staring at them haughtily but they were prats anyway.

"No, no, don't stop!" Alfie shrieked as he flew past. Craig walked up to stand just out of the path of the swing. He didn't fancy his face getting kicked in by Alfie's trainers. That would be a sorry way to go.

"If you let go midair, Alfie Owens, you will be in such trouble as you cannot understand, got it?" he finally said. Resolving to not worry about the kid with one deep breath, he turned back to the Doctor, who had traded places with River in pushing Alfie's swing. He hadn't quite mastered the rhythm and Alfie was going significantly less high. He breathed a sigh of relief and jumped when he turned and saw River.

"Yes, remember last time we were here? I think it was last time," River peered closer at his face. "The Cybermen?"

"Yeah, that was about four years ago."

"Well, the Doctor was going to his death, so he thought. I was there to try to keep his spirits up a little. I'm not sure how well that worked, though, since both of us knew I was to kill him and only I knew that I hadn't killed him," River ended on a sigh.

"What?" Craig really didn't know what to say and this seemed to be enough. River laughed.

"I'll leave it at that, dear. Long story short, we got married on top of a nice pyramid in a timeline that never happened on a world that no longer exists. Really, it's one for the lawyers, but we've considered it legally binding for a hundred or so years."

"Fun" was his next monosyllable.

"Quite," River replied with a smile to her husband.

"It was a nice wedding," the Doctor reminisced. "No flowers—I hate flowers at weddings this go-round, not sure why—I think it was that coronation we crashed in 43 BC in India, remember that, River?—on second thought I don't think you've done that yet, spoilers—not too many guests on the pyramid—just Rory and Amy—her parents—then again, Rory never really knew what was happening, did he?—and a nice, erm, kiss" the Doctor turned red "to kill me but not really kill me."

Craig blinked. Alfie chose this moment to let go of the swing at the highest point of its arc and fly through the air and land in a pitiful little heap on the playground. The Doctor and River immediately ran over to him and the Doctor scanned him with the screwdriver before Alfie had the time to begin crying or regain the breath knocked out of him.

Craig ran to his son's side and, pulling his kid into his lap, asked the Doctor, "Anything wrong with him?"

"One skinned knee" Alfie pulled up his trouser leg to show the bleeding knee to his father "one lack of oxygen for a few seconds that probably scared him silly, and one need of a nice lolly for the pain. And perhaps one kiss from a nice mother." The Doctor ruffled Alfie's hair and nodded.

"Kisses from a nice mother do a world of good," he whispered seriously to Alfie. River handed Alfie the candy and smoothed his soft hair back.

"Alfie Owens, what did I tell you about letting go of the swing?"

"You said not to," Alfie whispered around the candy in his mouth.

"And see, you got hurt. Don't do it again."

"Okay, Daddy."

River stood and offered a hand to the Doctor, who raised an eyebrow and scrambled up by himself. "Well, I would love to meet Sophie, if I can be so bold as to invite myself over," she said. Craig carefully stood up, still holding Alfie, who rested his head on his father's shoulder.

"Of course, that'd be great! She's been longing to see the Doctor again and I may have mentioned you once, and she's quite curious," Craig said as he settled Alfie on his shoulder.

"Curious?" asked the Doctor.

"I'm very interesting, sweetie. You should be used to it."

"What about me, though?" the Doctor whined as he took River's hand and all four turned toward the Owens' house.

"Sophie's already met you. You're no longer a curiosity. Sad, but true."

"I'm a Time Lord! I'm always a curiosity! I have a transdimensional time machine and a sonic screwdriver!"

"A time machine that likes me better and a sonic screwdriver that only cooperates properly if you shake it a few times before use ever since that _stupid_ trick you pulled with those Daleks in Saudi Arabia."

The Doctor stuck his bottom lip out even farther.

After transferring Alfie to the Doctor's arms, Craig opened the front door and tiptoed inside, hoping against all reason that he wouldn't wake up Janie. He found her and Sophie on the couch, Janie asleep on her mother's shoulder and Sophie watching television, some American show. Craig saw a flash of a man wearing a tan trench coat before Sophie turned the TV off. He leaned down and kissed her and Janie's foreheads.

"What are you two doing home so early?" Sophie whispered.

"Met some people at the park, thought I'd bring them home. And Alfie kind of skinned his knee," Craig whispered. Janie was not awake yet, and all conversations took place in whispers until she was awake.

"Not surprised. Who'd you find?" Sophie whispered. "Oh my goodness, it's the Doctor, isn't it!" She jumped up carefully and handed the dead-to-the-world Janie to Craig. "And his girlfriend, River, right?"

"Good guess. Alfie found them at the park. Scared me to death, actually. Wait, how did you guess that?"

"What?" Sophie ran to the front door and pulled Alfie, who had elected to stand on his own despite the still oozing knee, inside, motioning for the Doctor and River to follow. The Doctor was grinning and River looked the picture of elegance and composure. "Alfie Owens…" Sophie had set Alfie on the kitchen counter and was examining the knee.

"I'm okay, Mum! The Doctor gave me a lolly! Can Janie have a lolly? It was a strawberry one."

"No, she's too little. In a few years. Craig, hand off Janie and get the first aid, please."

Craig dutifully handed Janie to River and went to find the first aid. He returned with the box to find the Doctor bouncing on his toes, River cradling the baby, and Sophie chatting at the Doctor. He handed the first aid to Sophie and stood up straight to perform his host duties.

"Sophie, Doctor River Song. River, this is my wife, Sophie."

"Pleasure to meet you," River smiled.

The Doctor turned back toward the closed front door, stuck his head out, seemed to concentrate on something, like when Alfie was listening very carefully to Craig's instructions on how to build a Lego castle, and turned back quickly without a sound.

"Craig has told me quite a lot about that afternoon you and the Doctor were over. I do wish I had been there," Sophie answered while applying the plaster to Alfie's little knee.

"It was a very interesting afternoon," the Doctor said, smiling stiffly. He rubbed at his ear and glanced down at River, who nodded briskly without taking her eyes off Janie. Her gaze seemed unfocused from Craig's point of view.

"Something wrong?" Craig asked, looking back and forth between the two. He had nightmares about the Doctor's noticing face, which was exactly what it was.

"Not sure. Give me a minute."

The Doctor trotted back to the door and yanked it open. The Doctor looked up into the sky and River strode over to join him. They cursed in unison.

"What is it?" Sophie asked. "Is it aliens?"

"It's usually aliens, you might say," River replied.

The Doctor muttered, "Humans. So prejudiced. _We're_ aliens for Gallifrey's sake and no one thinks to accuse us of being _aliens_. Just because we have two arms, two legs, two eyes, and no strange appendages—"

"Doctor, shut up, she's speaking again."

"What _is_ it?" Sophie and the Doctor asked in unison.

"Wait, _you_ don't know what it is?" Craig asked. He was getting a bit panicked. River pulled out her computer and tapped a couple of times. "What is it, anyway?"

"You don't hear that?" the Doctor asked, amused.

"Human ears, sweetie," River muttered. "It's the TARDIS, Craig."

"We can't hear it, Doctor!" Craig cried. "What in heaven's name is going on?"

"Look, Doctor!" Alfie, who had run outside at some point in the discussion, pointed up to the sky. "Spaceship!"

The Doctor ran out and grabbed Alfie under the arms, looking up as he carried Craig's son back in. "Qeytolnirians, am I right, Doctor Song?"

"Yes, sweetie, they must have followed us. The TARDIS picked up their sensors an hour ago and thought they were getting too close as usual." River cursed in that alien language. Sophie looked up interestedly from cuddling the still-sleeping Janie. Her calm surprised the frankly scared Craig. "We have to go. Their weaponry may be behind the times, but Earth is farther behind. You still have just nuclear weapons, right?" she addressed Craig, who nodded. _What in the world did these aliens have, then, if nuclear weapons were so immature?_

"Of course, honey, we'll be right off," the Doctor said brightly. "Craig, Sophie, do not worry about us or the bloodthirsty Qeytolnirians above you, they only want us, as usual. River _may_ have offended the queen."

"She wanted to take you as her personal spy and probably _more_ , sweetie. You're smart enough to figure that out. And you are _mine_ , I'm afraid."

The Doctor blushed just a little before hugging Craig tightly, patting Alfie on the head, kissing Sophie's cheeks in that totally-not-normal-way, and whispering something over Janie's forehead. River clasped Sophie's hand, kissed Craig's cheek, hugged Alfie, and brushed her fingers over Janie's soft baby hair.

They wove their fingers together and walked out of the house, River preparing her gun with her free hand. Craig, still trying not to worry about the bloodthirsty Qeytolnirians, ran after them. "Wait!"

They had only made it five steps away. River stopped and turned. The Doctor tripped and turned to face Craig after successfully not falling. "Yes, Craig? We're in a bit of a rush, so do speak up," the Doctor said.

"What did you say to Janie?"

"A Gallifreyan blessing. She'll need it. All children need it, but she's special," River smiled. "She's going to be amazing, Craig."

"Alfie got one, too, last time," the Doctor declared happily. "Good kids, Craig."

"Thank you," he whispered. They blessed his kids. _Aww. Adorable._

Sophie took his hand and called out to River and the Doctor, "Go! Go save the earth and all that. We'll be here waiting. Come back as soon as you can!"

They smiled so sadly. "Thank _you_ , Craig and Sophie," the Doctor murmured. River whispered something in his ear and he waved a frantic goodbye. "They're about half a mile up, have to run! Fantastic seeing you, as always!"

The faint outline of the box beneath the tree disappeared with them.


End file.
